Trump issues meeting ultimatum to Mexican leader
President Donald Trump / Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFP
US President Donald Trump on Thursday told Mexico’s president to cancel an upcoming visit to Washington if he is unwilling to foot the bill for a border wall.
Escalating a cross border war of words, Trump took to Twitter to publicly upbraid Enrique Pena Nieto.
“If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.”
Talks have been scheduled to take place at the White House next week.
On Wednesday, the mercurial US leader ordered officials to begin to “plan, design and construct a physical wall” along the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) US-Mexico border.
Stemming immigration was a central plank of Trump’s election campaign, although there are still serious doubts about how the project will be funded.
Trump’s decision put Pena Nieto under fierce domestic pressure to hit back, and hit back he did in a video message to the nation late Wednesday.
“I regret and condemn the decision of the United States to continue construction of a wall that, for years, has divided us instead of uniting us,” Pena Nieto said.
“I have said it time and again: Mexico will not pay for any wall,” he added.
By Thursday morning, Trump’ had issued his bareknuckle public response, which may shock diplomats but is in keeping with the mogul’s hardball approach to negotiations.
Trump also took to Twitter to gripe about the trade gap between Mexico and the United States.
“The US has a 60 billion dollar trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers of jobs and companies lost,” he said.
Trump has said he will seek to renegotiate the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.
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3 Comments
When stupidity, greed, lies, fraud, arrogance, decadence, and old-age stupidity can come together, one can only reckon with the worst. Trump is by far the most stupid president who has ever moved into the White House. To think, I, the US President am only responsible for the happiness of some stupid uneducated farmer, is too short-sighted.
The damage that this uneducated US president is doing will throw America into chaos for decades. The sad truth is, the stupid are not willing to learn; and so this fool will plunge the half of the world into chaos.
Dear God, I love Mr. Trump, but if you love him more, take him quickly to heaven
Agreed
How do you expect Mexico to fund such a bogus project that will run into billions of dollars and probably take 10-20 years to complete when Trump would certainly would have been out of the Presidency. 3,200km wall is that a joke!what would it really achieve?it would not stop illegal migrants even if land mines and sniper posts are there.The Berlin wall crumbled people don’t learn.Trump thinks this is another reality show this is REAL LIFE REAL LIVES and not an entertainment show.
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